


the inevitability of rain in the downpour

by east_wind



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 00:18:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12782778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/east_wind/pseuds/east_wind
Summary: implacable, adj.: relentless, unstoppable; impossible to be placated





	the inevitability of rain in the downpour

Eames drove home from the funeral, slipping away from the procession onto back roads. Driving too fast. Arthur leaned his temple against the passenger window and let it happen. He was too tired to fight, too old (he was ancient, now that every day added years) to cry, but he could be guilty.

“Dom needs me. At the reception. I can’t do this, I need to be there for him, he’s probably making a hash out of it on his own.”

“Are you somehow forgetting what he said to you? It’s only been a day- Look,” Eames said, flat-voiced. “Dom. Doesn’t. Want. You. There. It’s the truth. He practically said it himself.”

“There’s a difference between want and need.”

“That clearly doesn’t matter anymore, not to him. What about you? What do you need?”

“Goddamnit-” _The list goes on and on, where would you like me to start?_

“Look, I know. But you’re going home, because you haven’t fucking slept in like thirty-eight hours, and that’s excessive even for you.”

Arthur didn’t ask him who’d died and put him in charge.

He sat silently, and watched the familiar streets of his neighborhood pass, newly tinted with the knowledge that he hated Dominic Cobb in that moment more than he had ever hated anyone. Their last conversation, in the kitchen of Mal’s house (it would always be Mal’s house), played through his head, and no matter how many times Arthur turned it over, it ended with Dom shutting him out.

Eames got out when he parked the car in front of Arthur’s driveway, blinking against the rain that had started to fall. He stopped on the doorstep.

“Are you coming in?” Arthur kept his voice absolutely blank. He had no idea what answer he wanted.

“No, I- I need to ask you something. And I need you to promise me that your answer will be one hundred percent honest.”

“God. What?”

“Are- Will you-”

“Spit it out, Eames, it’s raining.”

“Christ, fine, Arthur! I want to know if it’s going to be safe to leave you alone tonight, alright?”

Red heat flared in Arthur’s chest. “Oh, yes, because I’m the flight risk, here? Let’s see, who was it again who disappeared back in L.A.? Who scared us all to death in-” He was building up to a good shout, leaning forward into Eames’s space, but he was overpowered.

“No, goddamnit! I already lost Mal, I don’t need to fucking lose you too.” There was suddenly only silence and rain between them. When he spoke again he was very quiet. “I’m sorry.”

Arthur saw then, as if piercing through a dense mist, that Eames was grieving in his own way, too. For the first time since the night of Mal’s- death, his throat tightened, hot with tears. “You’d better come in, yeah?” He managed, voice wavering. Eames followed him in and shut the door softly behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm quite unapologetic about how brief this is; thank you for reading it all the same!
> 
> Edit 3/6:  
> Come talk to me on tumblr! ventum-orientalem.tumblr.com  
> (It's east_wind in Latin because sometimes you just gotta be pretentious like that)


End file.
